1. Related Technical Fields
Related technical fields include navigation systems. Specifically, related technical fields include navigation systems in which a navigation device installed on a probe car transmits probe information to an information center.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of navigation systems are known in which a navigation device installed on a probe car transmits collected probe information to an information center via, for example, a mobile telephone signal.
When receiving the information of a starting position, a destination, and a driving route from the navigation device installed in the probe car, the information center determines information (hereinafter called “subject information”) to collect, such as areas and time of driving data, for the navigation device to collect based on information such as event information, traffic accident information, forecasted traffic congestion information, an amount of collected information anticipated, an amount of information accumulated, and weather information. The information center then instructs the navigation device to collect the decided subject information. The navigation device collects and transmits the collected subject information to the information center. Such a navigation system is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2006-146645, paragraphs [0006] to [0029] and FIGS. 1 to 6.
In the navigation system disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2006-146645, because the subject information can be decided so as not to collect similar driving data from a plurality of navigation devices, duplicate data collection can be avoided. Also, specifying the subject information to collect to the subject information in great need, makes it possible to lower the frequency of data collection and to suppress the communication cost entailed.